Anti-piracy plan ‘puts patients at risk’

Patients in developing countries could be denied access to vital medicines under proposals for an international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA), five campaign groups warned today.

In a letter to Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, the five groups, which include anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam, warn that “new and unbalanced intellectual property rules, such as those included under ACTA, would condone overzealous and erroneous enforcement of intellectual property for medicines and thereby pose a danger to public health, while doing little to protect consumers from unsafe products”.

The letter says that a recent, confidential draft ACTA text contradicts assertions made by De Gucht that patents were no longer part of the agreement’s border measures. According to the letter, the border measures could still apply to all kinds of intellectual property rights and could be used by transit countries to intercept shipments of generic medicines.

The organisations also claim that ACTA does not differentiate between trademark infringement and counterfeiting. Only the second category should fall under ACTA, they say.

The letter was sent today (29 July) and is signed by Oxfam International and Health Action International Europe, as well as civil-liberties groups Knowledge Ecology International, Public Citizen and Vrijschrift.